LUCKNOW: Praising the UP government for its effective Covid control measures, a group of “concerned citizens from various walks of life” has distanced itself from the criticism by another group of retired civil officers, academics, etc which had condemned the government for a “complete breakdown of governance”.
In an open letter on Monday, 151 civil servants and army officers have professed its “unshakable belief in the greatness of Indian democracy and its sacred institutions, the sovereignty and integrity of India, a robust economy and a cohesive society knitted in the fabric woven from the highest human values”.
The statement, issued on behalf of retired civil servants, academics, lawyers and retired members of the defence services, by UP's former chief secretary Yogendra Narain, has accused the first group of posing to be non-political but projecting India in a negative light on the international platform.
Praising the UP government’s efforts at bringing the second wave of Covid-19 under control, the statement says that “scoring brownie points and flashing some random pictures of dead bodies floating in River Ganga is aimed at damning the hardworking and fearless Corona warriors on the field. Instead of building a disproportionately negative narrative, these whining former civil servants should have opted to work as volunteers in the crisis areas”.
It has also questioned the intent behind the statement, asking why this group never questioned previous governments in UP under whom, as per NCRB data of 2017, UP topped the list of states with the highest number of crimes against women. It has also sought to know what the group of 236 has only questioned the UP government while ignoring other state governments.
“Alleging that petty criminals or innocent citizens, and predominantly Muslims, Dalits and OBCs are being eliminated through police encounters in UP is a very serious allegation. It has been learnt that from March 20, 2017 to July 11, 2021, 8,367 police encounters took place in UP in which 140 lost their lives. Only 51 out of the 140 criminals killed were from minority communities. Thirteen policemen were killed in the so-called ‘fake’ encounters, and another 1,140 policemen were injured,” the statement says.
The statement defends the arrest of journalist Siddiqui Kappan from Kerala, who was arrested from Mathura district while on his way to Hathras to cover a story of a rape victim, saying that Kappan is “allegedly an active member of the radical Popular Front of India (PFI)”, and was sent to judicial custody as per the law of the land, and denied bail on merit by competent courts.
Earlier, a group of 236 had condemned the ‘Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance’ in its statement, saying it was open to misuse and since being made into law, had “been used by the state to frame innocent Muslim men who have friendly or romantic relations, or enter into marriage, with Hindu women.”
Narain's statement says that even before Independence, princely states had passed laws against religious conversions and after Independence, states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc had legislated on matters relating to unlawful conversions. The law in UP, it said, applied to everyone irrespective of their religion.
Defending against charges by the 236 where it accused the government of misuse of the draconian National Security Act and gave the example of 2020 when 139 people were booked under the draconian National Security Act of which 76 were booked for alleged cow slaughter, 13 for anti-CAA protests and 37 for alleged heinous crimes, the Narain statement alleges that these are incorrect statistics.
“The NSA was imposed in 222 matters in 2020, out of which only 88 cases were related to cow slaughter, which fall under the purview of NSA as a serious threat to public order in a sensitive state,” it sought to clarify.
It adds that in criticising the UP government for legitimising vigilantism in the state, the group of 236 has forgotten that community policing was not launched by the current government but has been used by previous governments as well.
The signatories to the statement include Raj Bhargava, former chief secretary of UP, former UP DGP OP Singh, former Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi, seven former Ambassadors including Lakshmi Puri, wife of civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri, seven former judges, 57 retired members of the armed forces.
